Pinsent Masons announces Annual Results

The firm achieved global turnover of £362.2m, up 12% on FY13/14. Profit per equity partner increased to £538k. 

The results follow a year of expansion at the firm. In March it announced plans to open offices in Sydney and Melbourne, before making up a record 29 partners to take the firm's partnership to over 400. 

The firm made a number of significant lateral hires during the period, including the appointment of David Heffron as Head of Financial Services Regulation and the addition of London-based oil and gas specialist Paul McGoldrick and his team. The firm also launched its Tax practice in the Middle East and appointed heavy-hitting corporate partner Osama Hassan into Dubai.

Standout mandates for the firm over the period include advising Heidelberg Cement on the UK aspects of the US$1.4bn sale of Hanson Building Products, acting for Canada Life Limited on the acquisition of Equitable Life’s non-profit annuity business which has liabilities of approximately £875m, and representing Blue Water Energy on two private equity investments with a combined value of US$750m into North Sea oil and gas exploration companies. The firm also acted for the Home Office in relation to legal proceedings around the termination of a £750m IT contract. 

John Cleland, Managing Partner at Pinsent Masons, says: 

"It has been a positive year in which we have reaped the rewards of several significant investments we have made over a number of years. The McGrigors merger, new offices in Paris, Munich and Istanbul, and significant lateral hires into Asia and the Middle East have all played their part. Our partners, and in particular my predecessor David Ryan, take credit for having developed a fantastic platform for success. 

What this demonstrates is how crucial strategic investments are to profitable growth. This has been an 'investment-lite' year by our own recent standards. I would anticipate that over the next year we will make more investments than we did in the year just passed. That will start with the launch of our new offices in Sydney and Melbourne, but won't end there. We've made great progress towards our vision of becoming an international leader in the global sectors in which we operate, and these results position us well to move further and faster in that direction."